Henry marbeau



ICE' HENRY Manon/m, er PARIS,FRANCE, ASSIGNOR TO 'rnesocimu ANONYME LE FERRO-NICKEL,1OF SAME PLACE.

PROCESS-0F ANUFACTURlNG IRON AND STEEL ALLOYS.

SPECIFIOATIONforming part of mum Patent No. 419,274, time Tannery 14, 1890.

, Application an April 8,1889- smile. 806|432- (No mums-P To all wiwmit may concern:

lie known that L'IIENRYMARBEAU, of Paris, lll the Republic of France, have in;

vented a certain new and useful Improve-' went in the Process of lllanufaeturing Iron and Steel Alloys, of which the following speci ficntion is a full, clear, and exact description.

"lhe invention relates to the production of malleable alloys of iron and steel with nickel and other me als.

lieretoforel have obtained ferronickels and steel nickels with a high percentage of nickel, varying from ninety-nine per cent. to twenty-five per cent. of nickel, possessing the peculiar properties of the latter metal, such as brilliaucy, incapability of oxidation, &c.. and which are capable of being substituted for nickel formany purposes A description of the process of manufacturing such alloys is given in British Patent'No. 7,179, dated June 1?, 1885: In pursuing-experiments in this direction I have now succeeded, byreducing the percentage of nickel below twenty-five per cent, in producing a series of alloys which, although belonging to the same class as those formerly described and patented, are

possessed, on account of their constitutive elements and mode of production, of new propcities, and constitute a distinct class of alloys, forming a new manufacture.

The present invention relates not to alloys of a relatively high price, which might replace pure nickel, owing to their richness in nickel, but to alloys which may be compared to iron and steehand in which the addition of a proportion even small of nickel modifies the structure or constitution of the metal without materially augmenting its cost, (for the low percentages,) and produces aremarkable improvement in the duality of the iron or steelemp'loyed.

'lhepresent invention has for its object the production of malleable alloys of iron or steel with nickel in a proportion varying from about twenty-five per cent-down to a' mere trace of nickel, these alloys being capabio of being employed in the same way as iron and steel of commerce, but possessing superior qualities to these metals as heretofore obtained.

The new processes consist in simultaneously using manganese andalnminium with Or without the addition of charcoal or other formof carbon or metallic cyanides or ferrocyanide's. With regard to manganese, either pure manganese is employed or oxides of this metal mixed with a reducing agent or ferro-inanganese. In the same manner, with regardlto the aluminium, either pure aluminium' is employed or a mixture of iron and aluminium.

The nickel itself is introduced either in the form of pure nickel or in that of a malleabilized metal, or in the form of a matt or speiss more or less rich in nickel, derived from the smelting of metal ores carried on up to the beginning of the elimination of iron or derived from a previous melting of cast or other iron or steel with nickel.

' The following is an example of a convenient method of conducting the process'in order to \obtain a good result: It is preferable to take the nickel pure or alloyed with iron at the first stage of the operation. The man ganese, in whatever shape'itis used, mixed ornot mixed with the carburizing agents, is added, either all at once or in two or more successive additions during the course of the fusiom The necessary proportion of aluniin iumis thrown in at the end of the operation, either in the melted metal in the furnace or in the casting-ladle As regards the melting apparatus, any suitable apparatus-such as those used at the present time for metallurgical purposes, crucibles, reverberating furnaces, converters, Siemens furnace, cupolas, and the likeean be employed.

The following may be taken as an example of the proportions which maybe empl. yed

with good effect; but the invention is-not im-' ited to the precise proportions specified: For every. thousand parts, by weight, alloyto be produced take from about one-tenth of a part to about one part of, aluminium and from about one to twenty parts of manganese, according to the proportion of nickel and the quality of the product to be manufactured.

lVith regard to the carburizing agents, the carbon or cyanides' are to be used in different proportions, accqrdingto the nature of the alloys required-that is to say, according as the alloys to. be produced are hard or soft, carburized or not carburized, with the same specified are suitable fox-making on an open hearth a ferro-nickel with five per cent. of nickel, starting from a nickelifrous melt.

The operationis conducted as in making steel, and after the partial or complete decarburation (according to the quality of, the alloy to be obtained) the metallic manganese or ferro-manganese is added, and when the time comes for running, the aluminium is thrown in, either in the open hearth or in the casting-ladle.

In order to make the hundred kilos 0r thereabout) of alloy, the following may 0- used:

, Kllos. Iron containing twenty-fire per cent. of

nickel 100. 80 iron or steel i 400. Fcrro-munganese containing seventy-fire per cent. of manganese Aluminium...... .250 soa, 250 The sharacteristic points of these different alloys are as follows: They possess a much more. perfect homogeneousness than iron or steel ontalncd by the usual-processes, and

consequently they have very superior quali-,

tics, such as those of malleability, ductilit resistance, and elasticity. The ingots solidi y very quickly, and blow-holes are avoided. Ferro hickel's with twenty-flve per cent. nickel cannot be tempered whatev'ermay 'be the proportion of carbon they contain; but in proportion as the quantity of nickel is reduced their capacity for being tempered increases, and with a percentage of seven, five, and three of nickel and downward alloys are obtained which can be tempered just in the same manner as ordinary steels and according to the same rules.

The percentage of carbon,the distribution and the special forms of carbon in the cemcut and metallic nucleus, which modifications are due to the presence of nickel, (the cement referred to being the part containing the greater part of the carbon and surrounding the nucleus, which is constituted chiefly by the iron,) the fall of temperature between the heating and cooling, the rapidity of; the coolingliutervene to produce diflerent qualities of hardness, ascould have been foreseen from the complete analysis made according to the very accurate methods recently discovered and from the remarkable discoveries relating to the innermost constitution of thostecl which have been made in the Iastl'cw years.

The influence of the agents of mallcabilbzationin the application of our processes is demonstrated by the fact that even when these agents are used without additiomof nickel the products obtained possess qualities by far superior to those of iron and steel made by the ordinary processes.

Heretofore and prior to this invention I have produced ferro-nickel and term-cobalt by the direct fusion of pigs or mattes with one of the oxides of manganese and cyanide or ferro-cyanide of potassium, adding at the moment of tapping a small quantity of aluminium. Such process is described and claimedin British Patent No. 2,573 of .1884,

granted on a communication from me. That process,-however, related exclusively to the treatment of pigs or mattes of nickel and cohalt, whereas the process herein described is particularly applicable to pure or refined nickel. The former process-related exclusively to alloys resembling nickel in their properties and containingupward of twentyfive per cent. of that metal, whereas the present invention relates exclusively to-alloys containing less than twenty-five per cent. of nickel andfrom that down to a mere trace, such alloys constituting, as already stated, an entirely distinct class, possessing different andpeculiar properties. Moreover, by the present invention a great economyris effected in the agents 0 malleabilization, and the new process (litters radically from the former one in the proportions of these ingredients. I employ, according to the present invention, about one-ninth the quantity 0! manganese, about one-half the quantity of aluminium, and amuch smaller proportion of carburizing agents to thesame quantity, by

weight, of the alloy.

I claim as my invention- 1. Thoherein41escrlbed process ot-mnnufacturlng malleable alloys containing iron or steel and nickel by fusing the iron or steel witha comparatively small proportion (less than twenty-five per cent.) of nickel and with manganese and aluminium in appro'xk mately the proportions stated, as set forth.

2. The herein-described malleable alloy, composed of iron or steel and nickel, the proportion of nickel being less than twenty-five per cent. of the whole, with manganese and aluminium in approximately the proportions set forth,

In testimony whereof I have signed this.

specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HENRY 'MARBEAU.

Witnesses:

MAURICE Gnsz, J ossrn Housman. 

